On Tuesday, the European Parliament formally approved the EU’s Just Transition Fund (JTF) to support countries transitioning from fossil fuel industries amid the bloc’s efforts to fight climate change.
615 votes were in favor of the fund, 35 were against while 46 votes stated abstentions. The fund still requires final approval from all the EU countries expected in June as a formal procedure and would not make any changes in detail.
JTF amounts to EUR17.5 billion (USD21.37 billion), made up of the combination between the EU’s budget and its coronavirus recovery fund. It aims to support communities harmed by the plans to close the coal, peat, and oil shale sectors, or other emissions-intensive industries, and replace them with low-carbon industries and jobs.
Poland is the country set to take the biggest share of the fund, followed by Germany and Romania. The three centers of coal mining would have to submit plans detailing how they intend to manage mine closures and retrain workers to access the fund.
